Norway’s Equinor is planning to restart production at its 4.3 mtpa Hammerfest LNG export plant on the island of Melkoya on June 7.
The firm closed the facility on May 31 due to a gas leak.
According to Equinor, the leak occurred in connection with a valve in one of the plant’s cooling circuits.
Data by Gassco shows that Equinor previously planned to restart production on June 8 and subsequently changed the restart date to June 7.
“We have communicated via Remit that we plan to start production on June 7,” a spokesperson for Equinor told LNG Prime on Tuesday.
The spokesperson also confirmed that Equinor loaded the 155,000-cbm Arctic Aurora during the production shut down.
“This is possible as long as there is LNG in the tank,” the spokesperson said.
According to its AIS data provided by VesselsValue, the 2013-built LNG carrier, owned by Dynagas LNG Partners and chartered by Equinor, was on Tuesday anchored near the Hammerfest LNG facility.
Hammerfest LNG issues
Prior to this gas leak, the LNG plant was closed from May 4 to May 24 due to a problem with a heath exchanger.
Also, Equinor started again shipping LNG from the Hammerfest terminal in June last year since a fire that broke out at the facility in September 2020.
Hammerfest LNG liquefies natural gas coming from the Snohvit field in the Barents Sea.
Gas reaches Hammerfest LNG via a 160-kilometer gas pipeline which became operational in the autumn of 2007.
The firm and its partners are also upgrading the plant.
Equinor is the operator of both the Snohvit field and Hammerfest LNG with a 36.8 percent stake.
Other license owners of Snohvit are Petoro (30 percent), TotalEnergies EP Norge (18.4 percent), Neptune Energy Norge (12 percent), and Wintershall Dea Norge (2.81 percent).